Pharmaceutical firms Asahi Intecc, Eisai Corporation and Ohara Pharmaceutical Industries all committed to Africa Innovation & Healthcare Fund (AFH2), part of Singapore-based investment group AAIC Investment.
Unnamed trading groups filled out the limited partners for the first close of AFH2, which is targeting a $150m final close. Its predecessor AHF1 had raised $47m in 2017, and has backed some 30 companies focusing on healthcare and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
AHF2 will continue to identify and back healthtech-minded companies in areas that are driving entrepreneurship in Africa, including artificial intelligence and remote diagnosis services, digitisation and financial technologies.
AAIC Holdings, the Japan-headquartered consulting group that advises on investments, mergers and acquisitions and human resources in emerging markets, formed AAIC Investment in Kenya in 2015, claiming to be the first Japanese venture capital and private equity entity to establish a presence there.
AAIC Investment has since expanded into Nigeria and South Africa and is in the process of opening an Egyptian branch. These four African markets account for 74% of its total investment in Africa-based startups last year, and AHF2 will continue to invest in the region.
One of AHF1’s portfolio companies, Africa-oriented cross-border payments service Chipper Cash secured a unicorn valuation in 2021, having received $250m in a series C round in November that year led by cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Samurai Incubate, another Japan-headquartered VC firm whose Samurai Africa Fund 2 is backed by multiple corporates, had closed at $18.6m in April 2021. Similar to AAIC, it concentrates on Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa but with a broader mandate covering financial, insurance, supply chain, healthcare, e-commerce, energy, agriculture, mobility and entertainment technologies.
Image courtesy of Asia Africa Investment & Consulting Pte Ltd.
